An analysis of state report cards released in August has revealed a correlation between student performance and poverty.
Conducted by the Ohio School Boards Association, Ohio Association of School Business Officials and Buckeye Association of School Administrators, the analysis used the Performance Index grades of report cards — which measures how well students performed on the state assessments — as the measure to examine correlations between it and not only poverty rates, but also average income in a school district; percentage of residents with college degrees; and minority population, according to a Sept. 16 release.
Damon Asbury, director of legislative services for the Ohio School Boards Association, said the analysis was conducted to bring attention to the correlation between poverty and performance and to inform legislators that work is still needed on the school funding formula.
Public school districts use a combination of state funds, local sources such as property taxes — and in some cases income taxes — and federal funds, according to the Ohio Department of Education.
The Education Department states the amount of state funds that a district receives is based on a formula that takes into account the student enrollment and the property wealth of the district.
“We believe that low-wealth districts need additional resources and we will work to encourage changes to the school funding distribution process,” Asbury said.
The measures compared with the report card performance index “only scratch the surface,” but the study shows that those factors cannot be ignored, he said.
“Obviously, this is only one aspect of school performance,” Asbury said. “Many factors contribute to school performance, including parental support, community resources and other non-school factors.”
Ann Schloss, director of academic services for Elyria City Schools, which has a student poverty level of 66 percent and a performance index score 76.1 percent, said the group’s correlation suggesting that poverty is an indicator in how well a student learns is nothing new.
Other variables such as “exposure to experiences” should also be closely looked at, she said.
Experiences instilled in a child from an early age, well before he or she enters a school system, can dramatically increases a student’s chance for success, Schloss said.
“What poverty lends itself to is, many children are not exposed to educational experiences,” she said. “It’s about the experiences a child has growing up.
“When you talk about children who live in poverty, the number of experiences they have educationally are very different from someone who doesn’t live in poverty.”
In the past, children were exposed to those educational experiences — whether they realized it or not — early in their lives through family trips to zoos and museums for example, or experiences within the household, giving them a head start on learning, Schloss said.
Now, with economic stress facing many families, there are fewer opportunities because they now focus on providing basic necessities for their children, putting them in a “crisis mode,” Schloss said. When a family’s structure is in crisis mode that becomes their main focus.
“It’s not saying that the families aren’t good families, or that they don’t value education by any means,” she said. “They are just not able to expose their children to the educational experiences that a family who is not in that poverty cycle can.”
Amherst Exempted Village Schools Superintendent Steve Sayers said although income and poverty levels have shown to affect student achievement, he believes that teacher quality also plays a significant role in student success.
His district has a 21 percent student poverty rate and a performance index score of 86.7 percent, the report says.
“It is our job as educators to create the conditions necessary to reach and engage every student,” Sayers said.
As public educators, they do not have the luxury to “hand pick students,” but instead must find a path to help every child maximize their full potential, he said.
There are some obstacles to learning that students in lower income households may face, compared to those in higher income households, Sayers said.
But students must be treated as “individuals, not a collection of their circumstances,” he said.
Sayers said he concurs with Asbury that Ohio is in need of comprehensive reform in terms of school funding for all districts.
Unfortunately, the state has pushed funding needs back to the local level through levies, which is unfair to local taxpayers and property owners, he said.
“As the burden moves more and more toward local funding sources, we have to listen to our community and provide good results so residents continue to support the schools in the future,” Sayers added.
For districts with a lower percentage of students in poverty, like Avon and Avon Lake, school officials share their thoughts on the issue.
Avon Lake City Schools Superintendent Robert Scott said there are many ways in which poverty plays a role in a student’s success. However, he believes the success of students is based on the culture of a particular district.
“Avon Lake is considered to be one of the rich districts,” Scott said. “But, I believe we see a lot of our student success here because the culture of our district is different, our poverty level is lower and most of the students living here come from families where one or both parents have a college education.
“I’m not saying that education is not considered important in urban districts with a higher poverty rate. But when there isn’t that issue of poverty looming over their heads, students are able to focus, participate in discussion and apply themselves more to their studies.”
Using statistics from a 2011 study on poverty and education conducted by the Department of Education, Scott said students living in poverty were found to start school two grade levels behind their pupils living above the poverty line.
“According to the study from the Ohio Department of Education, students living in poverty already are at a disadvantage financially, scholastically and even health-wise,” Scott said. “Now take a poverty-stricken student and put them in a classroom where he or she is supposed to know the material, but they can’t seem to grasp it because they are at a disadvantage. It’s a recipe for disaster and only leads to students rarely coming to school or dropping out altogether.”
With a 95 percent attendance rate in Avon Lake City Schools, making sure students come to class is an important factor in determining how successful they are educationally, Scott said.
“Poverty problem or not, if students aren’t coming to school, that’s not helping us do our jobs or contributing to their overall success,” he said. “We may have different backgrounds and circumstances, but the end of the day, all districts have the same goal — to educate kids and help them become successful.”
Apart from attendance, Scott added that students, especially those in poverty, are more likely to flourish academically if quality teachers and staff are in a school district.
“In our schools, I’m proud to say we have educators who share a passion for teaching and a determination in seeing students succeed,” Scott said. “We test our students periodically as other districts do to assess where they are at academically. But tests alone do not solve the problem, especially when state testing is becoming more rigorous and students in poverty are already educationally at a disadvantage.
“I think in this case, we need to start looking at these students differently because their circumstances are different and it really can affect how they learn. There’s no one solution to the problem, but getting students in class and having the right people in place to motivate and guide these kids to success is the first step.”
Avon Local Schools Superintendent Mike Laub agreed with Scott, adding that the relationship between home and school is vital to student success.
“There are so many confounding variables when it comes to poverty and student performance,” Laub said. “But here in Avon Schools, we’ve found that the relationship between home and school is critical to student success,
“Here in Avon, we strive to reach out and serve families because that’s where learning begins. When home is involved in school, student success goes up exponentially. That’s our business, to get parents involved and promote education in and out of the classroom, regardless of their situation.”

About the Authors

Adriana is the courts and county reporter for Lorain County. She has a B.A. in Journalism and Promotional Communication from Cleveland State University. Reach the author at aadkins@morningjournal.com
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